The Happy Hour #162: Ellie Holcomb

My guest for The Happy Hour #162 is singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb. Ellie is a Nashville native, and began her musical career by touring the country with her husband in Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors. After 8 years, and with the birth of their daughter, Emmylou, she opted to step out of the role of heavy touring. From that space came her debut solo album, As Sure As The Sun, which charted at #1 on the iTunes Christian chart and helped deem her the “Best New Artist” at the 2014 Dove Awards. Since her first album, Ellie has been walking an unexpected path, one of suffering and loss but also peace and joy. And it is from that place—of finding God in the dark and unexpected—that she wrote and recorded Red Sea Road released earlier this year.

In our conversation today, Ellie and I talked about going through tough seasons in marriage and seeking counseling. No matter where you are, I think you will be encouraged by our conversation. The context for us was marriage, but regardless of your marital status, I think you will be able to relate to our tendencies to avoid conflict and avoid a mess.

Ellie and I have a very real and vulnerable conversation about depression, and what life is like in a family with two traveling musicians. Finally, you’re probably going to need to grab a tissue when Ellie talks about such a sweet moment with her daughter wanting to call God on the phone.

{You can listen to the showHERE. And of course, I would love if you would share with your friends. Just use the FB & Twitter links at the end of this post!}

4 Comments

Listening to Ellie Holcomb on the Happy Hour this week was so sweet to me in so many ways. As a night shift nurse, I’ve been begging God to open a door for me to work in some other area of nursing so that I don’t have to miss so much of my kids’ lives. When she talked about her friend clinging to the verse about “I asked God three times to remove this and He said my grace is sufficient”, tears streamed down my face as I begged God to please don’t let night shift be that thing for me. I can’t do this forever. Then she mentioned later on about God restoring the locust eaten years that her dad had spent working and missing so much in their lives, and I cried again. She reminded me that God is so faithful and will always provide and redeem and renew. So I’ll cling to both verses while I wait for God to change my circumstances. Thank you so much for sharing Ellie.

Oh, y’all…. this episode blessed my Sister and me so deeply! We are in the throws of loosing out Mother to a very horrible disease called MSA (multiple systems atrophy).
She lives with my Sister in Katy and I’m there at least every other weekend. This has challenged us in ways we never could’ve imagined. Our lives are not our own right now and we are trying to find Him in the midst of our grief and exhaustion.
Thank you for your words and vulnerability. It means. so. much.

[…] ID, hotel key, cards, extra stamps, map of the area, chapstick. the basics really. I turn on the Happy Hour with Ellie Holcomb (episode #162) and I head out the door. I walked the sidewalks and admired the beauty of the cacti everywhere. […]

The Abide in Christ book that Ellie mentioned is completely changing everything for me in my walk in Jesus. I just love that you ask your guests what they are reading/loving! Thanks for all that you do, Jamie!

Hi friend, my name is Jamie and I'm glad you are here. I'm the host of the weekly podcast, The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, as well as the author of a book releasing in January 2018. I used to write here all the time, and then life happened.